Concerns over Google Translate gaffe amid Hong Kong clashes

Tech giant’s translation service changed “I am sad to see Hong Kong become part of China” to “happy”.

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Google appears to have resolved an unfortunate gaffe with its online translation service which incorrectly translated “I am sad to see Hong Kong become part of China” as “I am happy to see Hong Kong become part of China”.

Users noticed that the mistranslation occurred when attempting to translate from English to both Chinese simplified and Chinese traditional options, amid tensions in the former British colony over a bill allowing suspects to be sent to mainland China for trial.

The bill is seen as a tightening of Beijing’s control over the territory, leading to hundreds of thousands of activists taking to the streets of Hong Kong in protest.

Users noticed an error on Google Translate and began highlighting it on Twitter, leading Google’s public search liaison Danny Sullivan to respond, saying the company was looking into how the mistake happened and that technicians were working on a fix.

We're looking into why we had this translation and expect to have a fix to resolve it soon.